More like a miniseries, but HBO’s Chernobyl. Some of the best television I’ve ever seen.
The Good Place. Funny, compelling, I cried through the final episode. It also doesn’t waste your time, things will happen mid-season that any other show would have dragged out for the season finale.
Avatar: the Last Airbender.
Firefly
Found-family space western with excellent music and characters
Yes, it has Joss Whedon’s name on it, but either because it was made much earlier in his career or because Tim Minear was showrunner, it doesn’t have the modern bathos issue commonly associated with him these days
Mr Robot. So many twists and turns, and had me absolutely fascinated from start to finish
Expanse
As a scifi buff: Battlestar Galactica, and The Expanse were excellent. Nightsky was also a really good watch even though it was slow moving, and was more about relationships than SciFi
Andor is the best piece of Star Wars media and the best TV show I’ve ever seen. You don’t need to like Star Wars. I don’t know if seeing Star Wars would even increase your enjoyment. I think seeing Rogue One would probably be good but otherwise just jump in. No space wizards or laser swords or destiny or whatever. It’s so adult and grounded. I can’t believe Disney let them make this.
Scavengers Reign.
Firefly.
Fringe
Obligatory Firefly mention.
The IT Crowd
Fringe.
Not for everyone, but if it is for you, you’ll adore it.
The Wire. It’s the best piece of visual media ever created. Not only is it the best portrayal of the inner city drugs trade but also the decaying institutions and social structures that allow it to flourish, and the corrupting influence of dirty money.
It also is consistently the best written show on TV and is grounded in it’s reality better than anything else. Half the cast were complete unknowns, in many cases plucked from the streets of Baltimore itself and there are standout performances all across it’s vast and diverse cast.
It’s a little slow to get going, the first few episodes have a lot of ground to cover to get the viewer up to speed, it also makes no effort to ease the viewer in, with a lot of jargon, slang and some very thick accents to content with, there’s also no “previously on the wire” to go over key points from earlier episodes so it definitely requires more participation from the viewer than most TV but it’s all the better for it.
